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EULOGY 



ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



GENERAL ANDREW JACKSON, 



DELIVERED AT BEDFORD, PA.,' 



^ 



JuLT? 28th, 1845. 



BY 

](^on. 31crcmialj M>' 25Iaclt. 






CHAMBERSBURG, 

JJIINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE «*W EEKLY MESSENGER. 



1845 

V 






.*>=c:- 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

Bedford, July 29, 1845. 



Hon. J. S. Black 



Deah Sir :— The undersignetl, Committee of Arrangement in the 
ceremonies of yesterday, beg leave to express to you their thanks for the admi- 
rable Address delivered by you. We not only speak our own opinion, but the 
feelings of every one who heard it, without distinction of party, when we say 
that the character given to Gen. Jackson in your Eulogy was stronger and truer 
than that which he had received at the hands of any other man. It was elo- 
quent and just to the illustrious subject, and we know that the People, whom he 
has served so faithfully, will feel the proper kind of gratitude for your full ano 
powerful vindication of their great departed friend. In their name and our own 
we thank you heartily. In order to make its effect more universal, we ask of 
you the favor to permit its publication in such form as may be deemed convenient 
for general circulation. 

Yours, RespectfuUj^ 

NICHOLAS LYONS, 
J. W. DUNCAN, 
G. W. BLYMIRE, 
JOHN CLAAR, 
JOSEPH FILLER, 
LAW. TALIAFERRO, 
W. T. DAUGHERTY, 
HIRAM LENTZ, 
HENRY LEADER, 
GEO. W. BOWMAN. 



Bedford, July 29, 1845. 

Gentlemen : — Your note of this date, requesting permission to publish the 
Address delivered yesterday, has just been handed me. To friends who are 
partial enough to place so high an estimate on a production of so little merit, 
I can refuse nothing. As you seem to think its publication Ukely to be useful, 
I place it at your disposal, without, however, at all coinciding in your opinion. 
But if it should enlighten one ignorant man on the subject to which it relates, or 
if it will serve to dispel the prejudices of a single bigot, I shall have something 
to be proud of and nothing to regret. You will not find it, in all respects, what 
it was when delivered, but, being engaged in Court, I cannot revise it. "What 
is writ is writ," and as slight as is its worth in other respects, it has the one 
merit of speaking plainly what its author believes sincerely. 

I am, most respectfully, 

Yours, &c. 



J. S. BLACK. 



N., Ltoxs, Esq_. and others, Committee, &c. 



Fellow Citizens : 

We have met to pay our tribute of respect and 
admiration to the memory of a man who has, for nearly fifty 
years, filled a large space in the public eye, and whose charac- 
ter, for the last thirty years, has been the almost constant 
subject of discussion by this whole nation. His friends con- 
stituted a very large majority of the people, and on their lips 
his name was the most familiar topic of applause. In their 
eyes he was mighty in word and in deed. If he addressed their 
understandings, they were convinced by what they deemed 
his unanswerable reasoning ; if he spoke to their hearts, their 
affections gushed forth in overflowing gratitude and venera- 
tion. In civil and in military life, he was, alike and at all 
times, "the hero they loved and the chief they admired." 

This devoted attachment was, however, not universal. A 
large minority, not only respectable by its numbers, but 
formidable by the talents, the moral influence, and the social 
dignity of its members, had a far different opinion of his 
character. By them his qualifications as a statesman were 
derided ; and though his military services were not denied, 
his opponents were not always unwilling to depreciate the 
value even of them. 

The discussion was bitter enough while it lasted — too 
bitter perhaps, for the credit of those engaged in it. But dealh, 
if it has not closed the controversy, has at least softened the 
tone in which it is to be conducted. The king of terrors is 
merciful as well as severe. When he strikes a great man to 
the earth, he interposes between him and his enemies the most 
effective shield his character can have. Human nature recoils 
from an effort to disturb the ashes of the departed, and shrinks 
from any attempt to continue a war against the spirit which 
has already rendered its final account to the Great Judge. 
When the career'of a public man is once closed forever, his 
opponents review their old opinions with candor, the in- 
different become interested, and hearts that were cold and 
hardened are moved, at last, to "the late remorse of love." 
Men, whose position in society or whose relations to the public^ 



compelled them to be neutral in his life time, are released by 
his death from the obligation of silence, and may vindicate 
him if they will as freely as others. 

But there is a measure of justice even for the dead. Truth 
is not less important, when the grave has closed over the per- 
son to whom it relates, than it was when he lived and moved 
among us. The majesty of Death, though it awes partizan 
malignity into silence, commands the voice of history to speak 
and the world to listen to its truths ; and no matter whether 
its judgment be favorable or adverse, tlie tribunal is too 
august to be tritled with and its decrees must be submitted to. 

In the case of the man upon whose character you, as a 
part of his countrymen, are now sitting in judgment, we ask 
nothing but patience and candor. We make no claim to your 
sympathies, on the mere ground of reverence for the dead. 
We are indeed most anxious that the good he has done should 
live after him, but we do not demand that the evil should be 
interred with his bones. In dealing with his memory there is 
no middle way. He himself was not a half way man. If he 
was really unprincipled and bad, he was tlie very worst man 
his country ever produced — nay he was almost a demon — and 
his memory should be clothed with infamy as with a gar- 
ment. But if the opinions of his friends be correct, I know 
not the man on earth whose eloquence is strong enough to 
speak his eulogy — there can scarcely be a limit to the admi- 
ration which is due to him. The timid or the false friend, 
who would " damn him with faint praise," is only a Utile bet- 
ter than the enemy who would blacken him with defamation. 

Taking as I do the better (and I trust the truer) view of 
his character, I can say with the most perfect conviction of its 
truth, that Andrew Jackson is entitled to stand higher, on 
the list of public benefactors, than any other man of his time 
— that he was a soldier unrivalled for skill and intrepidity — a 
patriot pure and faithful — and a statesman uniting the greatest 
and best qualities of a republican ruler. 

If these propositions be true, they ought to be proved — 
and when proved, they ought to be admitted by those who 
may now be disposed to deny them. It is time the vexed 
question were settled. The great cause of human liberty suf- 
fers by every moment of delay. If it be true, that the man 
whom an immense majority of the American people believed 
to be honest and wise, was merely a headlong tyrant, igno- 
rant, reckless, overbearing, and unprincipled, then is that peo- 



pie wholly incapable of self goverment. If they not only gave 
up the helm of their republic into the hands of a most un- 
worthy man, but praised him when his insane ambition 
trampled on their rights, and afterwards solemnly approved 
all his mad pranks, then they have neither the spirit nor the 
intelligence of freemen. In that case their consummate folly 
admits no prospect of a cure. The bubble of republicanism 
has burst ; the experiment has failed ; and our final hope 
for the cause of liberal principles, must be converted into flat 
despair. In vindicating the name of Jackson, therefore, from 
whatever of misconstruction it may have suffered, we are ser- 
ving the greatest and most elevated of all human purposes — 
the advancement of civil and religious liberty. Every one 
should be rejoiced to see such a man take his true position in 
the history of his country ; and I have far over estimated the 
magnanimity of that great party who thought it their political 
duty to oppose him, if they should not be as glad as others to 
see justice done to his name ; and that for their own sake as 
well as for his. 

Upon such a character as Jackson's, declamation would 
be out of place. A pompous panegyric "full of sound and 
fury signifying nothing" may be required to cover the defects 
of others ; but he needs it not. The highest possible praise 
we can bestow on him will be to recount a few of the promi- 
nent events of his life in the plain stjde of simple narration. 
We must necessarily deal in dry matters of fact and I give you 
notice that I intend to be as dull and tedious as the purpose I 
have in view requires that I should be. 

Andrew Jackson had his birth in one of the back settle- 
ments of South Carolina some nine or ten years before the 
declaration of independence. Of his father little seems to be 
known, but his mother, who became a widow when he was 
two years old, must have been a most remarkable woman. 
When the tide of war rolled towards her neighborhood, with 
the devotedness of a Spartan mother, she sent out her three 
sons (all the children she had) to fight for their country. 
Even her youngest boy, not fourteen years of age, whose af- 
fectionate nature and quick intellect had made him the pride 
of her heart — exen him she took away from the school where 
she was educating him for the ministry, and when his bright 
eye kindled with indignation at the story of his country's 
wrongs, she put the war iiarness on his young limbs and told 
him to go forth and strike for the oppressed. Her eldest son 
fell at Stono. The two survivors were present at the battle 



8 

of the Hanging Rock, and were taken prisoners after the de- 
feat. By her energy and influence an exchange' was effected, 
and she brought them home from Camden, wasted with 
disease and gashed with wounds. One of them reached home 
only in time to die there, and the other recovered as by a 
miracle. But before he was aUogether weU, his mother left 
the bedside ^of her youngest, her favorite and now her only 
child, to go on another errand of mercy — to convey some com- 
forts and necessaries to the poor prisoners at Charleston, who 
were suffering there, as her sons had suffered at Camden, by 
cruelty and want. While there, she took the fever of the pris- 
on and died on her way home. She was a Christian, and a 
heroine, and she died a martyr to the kindness of her own 
heart. No monument perpetuates her'virtues, but her mem- 
ory lives in the deathless fame of her son ; and if a column 
were raised above her grave, high enough to pierce the clouds, 
no greater praise could be inscribed on it than this — that she 
was WORTHY to he the mother oj Jindrew Jackson. 

» When that young man arose from his bed, the only survi- 
vor of his family, he had time to count how much the indepen- 
dence of his country had cost him. Others were in a condition 
to serve the cause more effectually, but no one suffered more 
deeply than himself. He had seen his neighbors and friends 
slaughtered and hanged with shameless, cold blooded cruelty, 
and their property pillaged, by an enemy calling himself civil- 
ised. His brothers had fallen in the strife, and his more than 
heroic motherhad met her death in an effort to relieve the vic- 
tims of oppression. The tyrants had not left him a relative 
on earth — "not a drop of his blood flowed in the veins of any 
living creature" — and in his own person he had endured 
captivity, and blows, and insults. No wonder that his high 
spirit, so sensitive to wrong and injury, should have hated ty- 
ranny, all his life afterwards, with a deadly hatred — no won- 
der tliat his fervent nature became wedded forever with a love 
unchangeable to the liberty for which he had paid so dear a 
price. 

AJter the peace, he worked awhile at the trade of a sad- 
dler, then resumed his literary pursuits, completed his edu- 
cation, read law, was admitted to the bar, and soon after- 
wards removed to Nashville. 

The commencement of his practice is worth remembering. 
Nashville was settled by adventurers from every quarter — 
some of them scarcely as honest as they should have been — 
and. the restraints of an organized society not being on tliem^^. 



they defied justice. Neither property, nor hfe, was secure. 
A number of these desperate men had gone largely in debt to 
the merchants and tradesmen of the place, and having no fear 
of law before their eyes, had come to the resolution to repu- 
diate their contracts. They had already secured all the pro- ' 
fessional assistance there, and as soon as Jackson arrived, they 
offered to retain him also. He ascertained that they had no 
honest defence, and with a generous and manly scorn, he put 
back their fees and scouted them from his presence. They 
tried to intimidate him, by threats of personal vengeance, from 
being concerned against them ; but they found him as fearless 
as he was honest. He accepted the retainer of the creditors 
and issued seventy writs the next'day. Justice was triumphant, 
as it always was when he saw to its execution ; and from that 
day Tennessee dates the supremacy of law and order within 
her boundaries. 

His professional course thus nobly begun was worthily 
sustained. His talents, integrity and keen appreciation of 
whatever was just, and his utter hatred of knavery in all its 
forms, soon Avon him the unbounded confidence of all good 
men and conquered the respect even of the bad. He was 
appointed Attorney General of the territory ; and when 
Tennessee was ready to come into the Union, he was elected 
a member of the Convention to form a constitution. His 
intimate knowledge of and warm attachment for the broad 
principles of democratic liberty made him the observed of all 
observers in the Convention. The constitution framed by that 
body, with its liberal and comprehensive bill of rights, its care- 
ful separation of powers and especially by its strong denuncia- 
tion of monopolies, bears the full impress of his vigorous 
mind. 

For his services in laying the foundation of their govern- 
ment, the people were thoroughly grateful, and they showed 
it by electing him to the highest office in their gift, for which 
he was eligible. He was under the constitutional age of a 
Senator, and the new state had but one representative in Con- 
gress. To this latter post they elected him unanimously. 

During his service in Congress an incident occured which 
ought to be mentioned, not merely because it v/as honorable 
to Jackson, but because his enemies have made it the subject 
of some railing accusations, General Washington's presiden- 
tial term was drawing to a close and he was about retiring from 
public life. A resolution was proposed expressing the w arm- 
est affection for him and great regret for the necessity of losing 



10 

his services. To this part all were willing to assent. In that 
shape it would have passed unanimously ; and if there was 
one man in the house wlio loved Washington better than 
another, it was the young member from Tennessee. But the 
federal or anti-republican party determined to make some 
capital for themselves, and having a majority in the house, 
they so framed the resolve as to make it express their appro- 
bation of all the measures taken by his cabinet. The perni- 
cious funding system of Hamihon and the National Bank 
chartered in 1791 on the recommendation of the same officer, 
reeking as both were with corruption, were to be endorsed 
with the rest. AU motions to amend were promptly rejected, 
and the minority were given to understand, that they must 
either say by their votes that they approved the obnoxious 
policy of Adams, Hamilton and Knox, or else submit to the 
popular odium of appearing to oppose the greatest and best 
man that ever lived. The trick succeeded with nearly all ; 
but there were two disciples of Jefferson there who had the 
moral courage to vote in the negative. I need not tell you 
that one of them was Andrew Jackson; for his moral courage 
never failed him. The other was Edward Livingston, his bosom 
friend throughout the most trying scenes of his subsequent 
hfe. 

When he was barely the constitutional age he was elected 
to the Senate of the United States without solicitation and with- 
out opposition. He resigned his scat in that body before 
he close of the first session. He was there, however, long 
enough to show his devotion to sound principles by opposing 
the alien and sedition laws. 

He was drawn from his retirement soon afterwards by an 
appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court of his State. He 
was then but thirty one years old, and is perhaps the only in- 
stance in this country, of any man having reached so high a 
judicial station at a period of life so early. The office of a 
judge is not a place where shining talents can be made con- 
spicuous ; the bench is no place for brilliant displays ; the ut- 
most distinction its occupant can properly aim at, is the nega- 
tive praise of having done no wrong. He kept the ermine 
unspotted, and no one but himself ever doubted his abilities. 
Long afterwards, his most bitter political opponents, in recom- 
mending a man for the presidency who had sat upon the same 
bench, could think of no higher praise to bestow on the judi- 
cial character of their favorite, than to say that his legal 
opinions were as sound and as able as those of Jackson. 



11 

When he proposed to resign, the members of the Legislature 
addressed to him an earnest remonstrance, demanding of him, 
in the name of their common country, that his great powers 
of thought and independence of mind (I use their own 
language) should not be lost in retirement. At their request 
he held the office for six years. His resignation, when it did 
take place, was regretted by all, except those who were con- 
nected with an association of land jobbers ; and he had the 
honor to mcur their enmity by exposing their frauds. 

In February, 1812, Congress authorised the President to 
accept the service of fifty thousand volunteers. Twenty five 
hundred Tennesseeans agreed to volunteer, if Jackson would 
command them. He placed himself at their head and 
marched them to Natchez. There he was met by an order 
fromthe Government to dismiss his men at once and deliver all 
his stores and public property to General Wilkinson. The re- 
sult of his literal obedience would have been to send his troops 
home a distance of more than five hundred miles unorganized, . 
unarmed and unsupplied with provisions, through a howling \ 
wilderness, inhabited only by hostile Indians, without even a 
means of conveyance for the sick. He refused, of course. He 
took the responsibility. He delivered such stores as would 
not be absolutely needed on the way, marched his men back 
to Nashville and discharged them there. The W'ar Depart- 
ment afterwards approved his conduct in not executing / 
literally that im.provident order. 

In a few months after this, the whole population of 
Tennessee were stricken with horror by the intelligence from 
Fort Minims, of the most ferocious massacre, the bloodiest and 
most relentless butchery, recorded even in the annals of savage 
•warfare. The Indians, instigated by the British, had surprised 
the station and murdered men, women and children indis- 
criminately. Similar atrocities were daily expected on other 
frontier settlements. In this extremity every eye was turned 
upon Jackson ; the hearts of the people would know no other 
leader. It happened that he was then confined to his bed 
with a broken limb. The Governor and a deputation of the 
Legislature went to his residence and told him of the demand 
for his services. His reply was : "All that is left of me be- 
V longs to my country, and in two weeks I shall be on horse- \ 
I back, if there is a spark of life in my body. In the mean time, \ 
\ raise the standard at Fayetteville, and let every man that can \ 
\ strike a blow gather around it." They told him the treasury ^ 
, wasefnpty and they had no means of equipping an army. But 



\ 



12 

he had, not longbefore,convertedaportion of his property into 
cash, and had, at the time, seven thousand dollars on deposit 
at Nashville ; that sum he directed the Governor to use in the 
purchase of provisions and arms. His fortune, as well as his 
life, was at the public disposal. 

He took the field according to promise, and then com- 
menced that career of magnificent victories, which made his 
name immortal. He pushed into the heart of the enemy's 
country, with a celerity of march which Caesar could not 
have outstripped, exerted a vigilance that Fabius never 
exceeded, encountered difficulties that Hannibal might have 
been proud to overcome, and met his foes in battle with 
an impetuous courage, that would have done honor to the 
personal prowess of Alexander, 

I will not weary you with a detail of his military opera- 
tions. The victorious battles of Emuckfaw, Talladega and 
the Horse Shoe, are not forgotten, and they never will be. 
Let no one suppose that these victories were won by the force 
of superior numbers and discipline, over a weak and barba- 
rous enemy. The enemy were savages, it is true, but alto- 
gether they outnumbered the troops under Jackson, they were 
well armed and provided, they were thoroughly acquainted 
with the country, they had ample scope for their characteristic 
cunning and treachery, they were led by the most distinguished 
braves of their respective nations, they were united and orga- 
nized by the skill of Tecumseh, and their fierce passions were 
roused to madness by his fiery eloquence. Never since 
America was discovered have the r6d men mustered in more 
formidable force against the whites, never did their blood- 
thirsty nature impel them to deeds of greater cruelty, and 
never did they receive such a terrible scourging for their 
crimes. 

But Jackson met other obstacles, such as could not have 
been surmounted by any man but himself He had counted 
on the co-operation of some troops belonging to another divi- 
sion : the officer who commanded them, refused to join him, 
or even to protect the posts in his rear. He moved on notwith- 
standing. The provisions purchased with his own money, 
were exhausted, and the State failed to supply him with more. 
He was undismayed even by the prospect of famine. Almost 
in the presence of the enemy, a mutiny broke out among the 
Militia, who claimed their discharge and left the camp in a 
body. The General drew up the volunteers across the road 



13 

and met the rebellious troops with fixed bayonets and muskets 
loaded. They knew they had to deal with a man Avho never 
threatened in vain, and they returned submissively to their 
quarters. The ring-leaders were tried, condemned, and exe- 
cuted. By his seasonable and just severity, as well as by his 
singular address in allaying their fears and exciting their 
hopes, he extinguished every sign of discontent, and, in less 
than twelve hours, they were more attached to their comman- 
der than ever. But this change of sentiment in the Militia 
was miknown to the Volunteers. During the night, the spirit 
of insubordination began to pervade them too, and, supposing 
that no force could be found to prevent their departure, they 
started next morning for home. Their astonishment may be 
guessed at, when they found the Militia drawn up on the 
same spot which they themselves had occupied the day before, 
in the same attitude, and headed by the same unshrinking 
spirit. They could do nothing but promise submission and 
beg for mercy. The Governor of Tennessee, hearing of these 
things, unable to fm-nish the provisions, and despairing of 
Jackson's success in a condition so utterly forlorn, directed 
him to abandon the expedition and commence a retreat. He 
answered, that he could do any thing but turn his back on the 
enemies of his country, but if he ever did that, it would only be 
to lure them into a battle. All this while his men were literally 
starving; the General's own table was served with but a single 
dish, and that was acorns. They implored his permission to 
go home, and he promised, that if they would remain with him 
only two days longer, and if no provisions could be had in that 
time, he would make no further opposition to their return. 
The time having expired and his word being pledged, he could 
no longer forbid their going. But he told them, that if only 
two men of all his army would remain, he himself would 
stay and die on the ground. One hundred and twenty five 
volunteered to stay, and with them he determined to main- 
tain his position. The rest took up their homeward march, 
but had scarcely gone before the long expected supplies came 
in. The General pursued and overtook them ; but when he . 
ordered them to return, they declared their unanimous resolu- ' 
tion to disobey him. Here then was another mutiny — not in 
half his army, but the whole of it — one that he was obliged to \ 
deal with, alone, and on the instant. He placed himself in front ' 
and declared that if they proceeded further, it must be over 
his dead body. By way of shewing that his life would be 
dearly sold, he unslung a carbine from his shoulder and an- 
nounced his' determination to shoot the first man who acK , 



{ 



14 

Tanced a step. The muskets along the line were levelled at 
his breast ; one only was fired and the bullet whistled over his 
head. He sat in his saddle unmoved. "Return," said he, "to 
^your duty or take the life of your General ; you have your 
choice." Overawed by his undaunted boldness, and struck 
with admiration at his noble bearing, they felt their old affec- 
tions revive in full force. They wavered a moment, then 
grounded their arms, and told him that wherever he would 
lead they were ready to follow. It was with these same 
troops and after all these occurrences, that he made that gallant 
fight at Enotochopco, gained the decisive victory at Emuck- 
faw, and won the bloody day at Tohopeka. 

The next year was the defence of Fort Bowyer — the 
taking of Pensacola — and, in the latter part of it, some prepara- 
tions for the battle of New Orleans. 

If there be one point or period in his history which needs 
no comment at all, it is that which relates to the latter achieve- 
ment. The American people understand the debt of gratitude 
they incurred that day, and their children have all its history 
by heart. The finest army that ever landed on American soil ; 
thoroughly equipped ; trained for years under the eye of 
Wellmgton; composed of veterans, who had met the conqueror 
of Europe and driven his legions back ; who had crimsoned 
the waters of the Douro with^he blood of their enemies; who 
had tasted plunder at the storming of Badajoz ; who had 
revelled in licentiousness at St. Sebastian, and whose merce- 
nary valor was here again to be rewarded with " beauty and 
l)Ooty" — against such a force, more than fourteen thousand 
strong, Jackson, with half the number of raw levies, was to 
defend the richest city of the Union, which, if taken, would 
have s-iven to the enemy the command of the Mississippi and 
the whole west from the Gulf of Mexico to the heart of Penn- 
sylvania. And that city was not a Gibralter or a Quebec — 
it had no natural advantages of position — no military works 
— no wall — no 

" High raised battlement. 
Strong tower or moated gate." 

it was situated on an open plain, with a hundred inlets to 

be guarded, and all means of defence were yet to be created 
by the genius and energy of its defender. No wonder the 
Legislature of Louisiana were in favor of surrendering the 
vcity, instead of making a stand for its defence under circum- 
stances which seemed so entirely hopeless. 



15 

But, in Jackson's vocabulary, the word surrender was 
never found. The foremost division of the enemy was scarce- 
ly within striking distance when he was upon them. His 
effective force at that time was hardly fifteen hundred men. 
But they were men who knew their leader and whose hearts / 
were filled with a portion of his own spirit. With that little / 
band he attacked a camp guarded by seven thousand of an { 
army that called and believed itself invincible. The bloody 
fight that ensued, indecisive as it was, would stand among the 
proudest achievements of American arms, if its brilliancy had < 
not been dimmed by the great battle which closed the war ; I 
and if the eighth of January could be stricken from the calen- | 
dar, the twenty third of December would be celebrated forever. 
;^/But the eighth of January did come, and with it the sun of 
1 Jackson's military glory rose to its zenith. He was every , 
(. where hailed as the great deliverer of the country. Gratitude \4 
and joy welled forth from the popular heart as from a fountain, 
and when the sage of Monticello invoked "honor" uponhim who 
had filled the measure of his country 'sglory,and fame, the senti- 
ment was heard and respondedto from one end of the Union to 
the other. Consider what he had to do, and how he did it, and 
then let your own hearts tell you which was right, the people 
who met him with acclamations of joy and delight, or the- 
Judge who fined him a thousand dollars. 

I will not pause upon the minor incidents of that great event, 
nor stop to defend his proclamation of martial law. The nation's 
judgment on this part of his conduct has been given in more 
forms than one. The far famed Seminole Campaign must be 
passed in silence. His triumphant vindication of himself from 
the charges growing out of his service during that expedition, 
will be remembered by his friends, and I hope his opponents 
may never forget it. Time would fail us, if we should re- 
count the scenes through which he passed, from the close of 
his military career to thecommencementof his first presidential 
term. Admiration would, indeed, love to linger on his thorough 
vindication of justice as Governor of Florida, on his manly 
bearing when the people named him as their candidate for the 
highest station in the world, as well as on his dignified submis- 
sion, when he saw another placed in the great office Avhich the 
affectionate gratitude of the people had designated as the re- 
ward of his own services. 

When finally he was placed at the head of the Republic, 
not only by the will of the people, but according to the forms 
of the Constitution, he showed the v/orld, whose gaze v/as oil 



y 



16 

him, that he was not a mere "military chieftain." Tlie 
com'age, which never cowered before an enemy, was indeed 
there ; the iron will, the fiery soul, the heart of steel, and the 
nerve of adamant, were with him still. But there also was 
the comprehensive intellect, the rapid power of combination, 
the intuitive perception of whatever was noble or good — 
above all, there was still the enthusiastic patriotism, which 
dedicated his whole being to the country that he loved — 
loved with all his fervor of devotion. 

f When the Maysville Road Bill passed both houses of 
I Congress by immense majorities, developing a system at war 
I with the Constitution, but in perfect keeping with the wild 
spirit of speculation and reckless expenditure, which after- 
wards swept so many of the States to financial ruin, it was 
his sagacity tliat saw the distant danger, and his firmness that 
applied the remedy. He crushed without hesitation a meas- 
ure which had the support of all parties. No truckling to pop- 
ular errors ; no wooing of powerful interests ; no base appeal 
to the sordid passions; no baiting of traps to catch the favor of 
the people, ever disgraced his manly statesmanship. He was 
as ready to stem the torrent when it was Avrong, as to swim 
with the tide when it set in the true direction. ' Upon this 
part of his history, time and reflection have put all right, and 
the only thing now left to excite our special wonder is, that 
others, who passed for wise men in their day and generation, 
should not have seen the subject in as true a light as he did. 

Nullification reared its head — the Union was to be 
severed, because one of the States was displeased with a law. 
Jackson was at his post. He never stopped to parley with 
the danger, or to bandy words with the wrong doers. He 
spoke not in the language of expostulation, advice or entreaty, 
but in the decisive and unequivocal tone of one who knew 
that it was his duty and his right to command. "The Union" 
said he ^^must and it shall be preserved :" and from that 
moment Nullification was doomed. 

But another foe, more deadly and dangerous than any he 
/ had yet encountered, was still to be grappled with. A great 
/ corporation with a capital of thirty five millions of dollars ; 
I wielding debts to the amount of seventy millions, against men 
I of all classes, professions, and grades ; intimately connected 
with all the ramifications of private business ; and holding the 
1 public funds of the Government in its custody ; demanded his 
^ signature to a new charter. He knew that the corporators 



IT 

had misbehaved themselves grossly — how grossly I shall not 
stop to tell — and he made no compromise with wrong. In the 
Constitution he had sworn to preserve, protect, and defend, he I 
found no warrant for such a law ; and he kept his oath. But f 
his veto was scarcely read, before the bank bounded into the f 
arena, armed to the teeth, and followed by a host of friends. / 
To cripple her power and save the country from loss, he 
removed the public deposites, a measure which cooled many ^ 
of his friends, while it fairly infuriated his enemies. The com- ' 
bat deepened every hour. To an eye unable to penetrate the 
sources of his influence, it seemed that he was about to be 
crushed at last. The Bank suddenly withdrew her discounts, ^ 
curtailed her circulation, pressed her debtors to the wall ; and 
the consequence was, that formal committees, from every part 
of the Union, waited on the President, by thousands, with 
bitter complaints of the distress which they had been taught to 
believe was brought upon the country by him. Two thirds of 
the presses, three fom-ths of the orators and writers of the 
nation were exerting all their powers of invective, argument 
and ridicule to bring contempt and hatred upon his character. 
The Senate, containing "the garnered talent of the nation" — 
the tribunal to which he had a right to look for a calm deci- 
,sion, for they were his judges in the last resort — accused and 
^■convicted him without a hearing. Physical force begun to be 
talked of, anonymous letters warned him that assassins were 
watching for his life ; "armed committees of ten thousand" 
were proposed ; an " encampment upon Capitol Hill" was 
threatened ; and "a revolution, bloodless a^ye^, "was announ- 
ced to the public on the highest authority. 

In all this storm of passionate declamation — amid this 
"loud roar of foaming calumny" — his firm soul never blenched 
even for an instant. He changed no principle, he retracted no 
opinion, he surrendered no truth, he gave up not one inch of 
the high ground he had taken. In this the sorest trial his 
faith had ever endured, "he bated no jot of heart or hope," but 
kept right onward in the path of his duty. The test was too 
severe for his summer friends, and they fell away from his sup- 
port by scores and hundreds ; but he was 

"Constant as the northern star, 
" Of whose true, fixed, and resting quality, 
" There is no fellow in the firmament." ' 

The electric chain of communication between him andv 
the people was still unbroken, and whatever link of that chairii 

a5 



18 

^ was struck by his master hand, the response was a deep thrill 
% of sympathy from the hearts of the million. His steady and 
fearless voice was heard through his messages, above the din 
of the conflict and it went over the land like the tones of 
a trumpet, ringing full on the ear, banishing doubt, inspiring 
confidence, and swelling the heart with a foretaste of victory. 
His friends, who had doubted his wisdom, began to wonder at 
their own want of discernment, and the great old chief, who 
had led them through so many contests, was proved to be right 
once more. 

He was followed to his retirement by a warmth of popu- 
lar aftection which had never been bestowed on any but one 
man before. His declining years were surrounded with all 
" Those things that should accompany old age 
As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." 
He lived long enough to see his most cherished hopes accom- 
plished — his principles stamped upon the pubUc mind — his 
own example made the standard of political orthodoxy. He 
saw the people rejudgc the judgment of his adversaries, and; 
expunge their sentence of condemnation from the record. He 
beheld the nation rising as one man and tendering to him a 
restitution of the fine imposed on him for saving the country. 
He had fulfilled all the purposes of his mission to the 
earth ; he had finished the work which God had given him to 
do ; and it was his time to die — time that his great spirit 
should be freed from the fretting chain which bound it to the 
lower world — time that his labors should cease and his 
hallowed rest begin. He closed his long list of triumphs with 
the crowning triumph of the Christian's hope, and ended his 
conquering career by another conquest, which robbed the 
grave of its victory, and took the sting from death. 

All that is mortal of Jackson has died. But his fame 
lives and will live forever. America will never forget 
her defender, the people will never fail to think with gratitude 
of their truest friend, the human race will never cease to pay 
the homage of profound admiration to the benefactor of, 
tiie world. 

In the character of a private gentleman, no man of his time 
was more admired by those Avho knew him, than General 
Jackson. All, who have ever seen him, concur in bearing tes- 
timony to the charms of his manner and the courtly grace of 
his deportment. This was not the result of an artificial 
polish ; his politeness flowed naturally from a kind, true 
heart. 



19 

/ In all the relations of life he was sternly and inflexibly 

^ i honest. No broken covenants, no violated obligations rested 
j^ V on his conscience. When yet a comparatively young man, 
and before his fame became, as it afterwards was, the public 
property of the nation, the misconduct of one whom he had 
trusted, made him, not legally but, as he thought morally, lia- 
ble for an amount of debts equal to the value of all his pro- 
perty. Although he had not made the contracts, and had re- 
ceived no benefit from them, and the law would have acquit- 
ted him from all obligation to pay them, he nevertheless gave 
up his stately home to the creditors of his false friend, retired 
with his family to a rude log cabin in a new clearing, and 
rather than stain his character with an act of apparent wrong, 
his resolute soul faced poverty without a murmur. 

His education was not of the kind usually supposed ne- 
cessary to make what is called an accomplished scholar. He 
had not those immense acquirements, which, in some men, 
overlay the mind and master the power of original thought. 
His researches were not for ornament, but for use ; it was not 
the flowers of literature, but the fruit that attracted him. His 
understanding was eminently practical and stored, not with 
fictions, but with truths. While history, ancient and modern^ 
sacred and profane, was familiar to him, it is, I suppose, ex- 
tremely probable that he never read a novel in his life. His 
style was logical, vigorous, dignified, and characterised by the 
lucid order and clear reasoning, which marks the production 
of a master — it was the eloquence of truth, spoken by one 
who both felt and understood it. Some of his orders, messa- 
ges and protests are not exceeded, in the impressive force of 
their diction, by any public papers in the world except only by 
the Declaration of Independence. 

As a lawyer, no aian ever understood better than he did, the 
great secret of success in an honest community. I mean the 
moral rectitude which always supports justice and always 
frowns upon fraud. It may be that he was no great 
adept in the mere technical tricks of the trade. We do not 
hear that he ever caused an innocent man to be executed, or 
cheated public justice out of a guilty victim. He had none of 
the glowing speech which could make the worse appear the 
better reason ; and no truly great man ever had it. He "af- 
fected not the devilish skill of outbaflling right, nor aimed at 
the shameful glory of making a bad cause good." But he 
could present truth in the proper attractions of its own beauty, 
and, falsehood, shrunk away from the piercing scrutiny of his in? 



k- 



20 

^stigation. As a science, he had thoroughly mastered the 
( /law. Those great principlts which have their home in the 
^^^ honest heart ; the wisdom which tries all things by the stand- 
ard of natural justice ; the unclouded steadiness of mental 
vision, which looks quite through the mists of sophistry ; the 
resistless vigor of mind, which brushes away the artificial im- 
pediments that obstruct the road to truth ; the luminous un- 
'; derstanding which sends a stream of light into every dark 
I corner where fraud might lurk to hide itself ; the sterling integ- 
ft rity, which braves all danger in the cause of justice— all these 
■he had and they made him a lawyer, great in the truest sense of 
\ the word. These qualities it was that enabled him when his foot 
"^•as barely on the threshold of business,to stand unawed before the 
pistols of seventy desperadoes, rather than soil his hands by un- 
dertaking their false defence. They gave dignity and grace 
to his iudicial character and made his public papers unanswera- 
ble. They extorted from the Chief Justice of the United 
States the declaration, that he was the profoundest constitution- 
al lawyer in the country, and compelled the most distinr 
guished members of Congress, when the Seminole Campaign 
was discussed, and after his defence was read, to admit that 
Jackson, in the woods of Alabama, and with no authorities to 
consult, understood and explained the rules of international law 
better than any man at Washington with the aid of all the books. 
in the public library. 

Among the military leaders of this country, whose talents^ 
were developed by the last war, Jackson stands alone and 
peerless, without a rival to come near him. He had all the 
qualities of a great commander ; courage, vigilance, activity 
and skill. His attack was the kingly swoop of the eagle on his 
prey, and his defence was hke that of the roused lion when he 
stands at bay in his native jungle. His character in this de- 
partment is indeed sui generis altogether. The history of the 
world contains no record of any man who has done so much, 
and done it so well, with means so inadequate. He was nof a 
"fortunate soldier." All the circumstances with which he- 
was surrounded were adverse. But his daring spirit made 
fortune bend to him, and compelled her to bless his standard 
with a success she never meant for him. 

It is not, however, upon his military services that his fame 
rests principally. His defence of our Constitution deserves, and 
posterity will pay to it, a higher praise than his deeds of arms 
are entitled to. For him peace had her victories far 7not'e re- 
Qowned than those of war. They elicited from him higher: 



21 

qualities of mind and heart. The nerve that meets an enemy 
on the field is comparatively a cheap virtue, for thousands in all 
ages have had it. But it is not once in a century, that a man 
is born with the high ??2orfl/ courage, which fits him to take the 
lead in a great reform. He who supports political truth must 
indeed be well armed in 

"The strong breast-plate of a heart untainted," 

if he can endure the lingering warfare, which will be waged 
against his reputation, by that "wild and many-weaponed 
thi'ong," which always opposes the progress of liberal princi- 
ples. This priceless gilt was bestowed on Jackson in all its 
perfection, and it placed him in the very front of the world's 
march. He saw further into futurity than any man of his time 
and his was the fearless honesty to tell his countrymen what 
he did see. He had a heart full of hope and manly trust in the 
people ; and they were true to him, because he was true to them. 
He pursued wise ends by fair means, and in doing so. he knew 
fear only by name. No abuse was too sacred, nor no fraud 
too popular, for the unsparing hand of his reform. He was no 
demagogue to fawn upon the masses and flatter their preju- 
dices. He spoke to them like a friend, for he was their friend 
— their devoted and faithful friend — but he told them plain 
truth, whether they liked to hear it or not. He knew that no 
appeal for evil purposes could be made to any people so suc- 
cessfully, as one addressed to their covetousness, and that no 
deity had votaries so faithful or so numerous as those of Mam- 
mon, the meanest and "the least erect of all the spirits that 
fell." He saw the frightful superstition v.hichmade strong men 
bow before the shrine of that base idol, covering the nation as 
wuth a dark pall, and weaning the hearts of the people from 
the worship of liberty and justice. Did he encourage their 
strong delusion by joining in the adoration 1 No ; he struck at 
the false God in his very temple and look his priests by the 
beard even between the horns of the altar. 

He has been called ambitious. In one sense this accusa- 
tion of his enemies coincides exactly with the praises of his 
friends. He was amljitious. But his was the ambition of a 
noble nature — an affectionate yearning to be loved by 
his country as he loved her — an intense desire to leave behind 
him a name hallowed by its association with great and benefi- 
cent actions — and to sleep at last in a grave made sacred by 
the veneration of the wise and the virtuous. Let those who 
object to such ambition make their worst of it. But,if any one 
supposes that his life was at all influenced by the vulgar love of 



22 

power for its own sake, or by the sordid desire to pocket the 
emoluments of public station, let him remember this : that there 
never was a period from Jackson's arrival at the age of twenty- 
one till the day of his death, when he might not have been in 
the public service if he had so chosen ; yet he spent more than 
half his time in private retirement. He never in his hfe, upon 
any occasion, solicited the people or any of their appointing 
agents for a place. His countrymen pressed upon him eleven 
different offices, without any procurement of his. Some of 
them he accepted with reluctance and all of them he resigned 
before the terms expired, except one ; that one he surrendered 
back to the people after having held it as long as Washington 
held it before him. 

Others have said that he was over-bearing and tyrannical 
— a contemner ot all authority. No one can deny that he was 
a man of strong will, impetuous passions and fiery temper. 
But he was most emphatically a law-abiding man. If there 
ever lived one who would go further to defend the constitution 
and laws of his country, or more cheerfully shed his blood to 
save them from violation, neither iiistory nor tradition has told 
us who he was. There is not a solitary act of his life among 
the many adduced to support this charge, which is not capable 
of a most clear and satisfactory defence. It is certain that, 
wdien engaged in the public service, he never suffered any one 
to interfere with his plans. When he formed them, he executed 
them and if it became necessary to do so, he was ready to 
stake, not only his mortal existence, but his character (which 
was infinitely dearer to him) on the issue. It is this unequalled 
moral courage which lifts him so high above common great 
men. Others have been willing to die for their country, but he 
periled life, fortune and fame together. And let it never be 
forgotten, that these things were uniformly done in defence of 
public liberty — it was ahviiys for his country, never for himself, 
that he "took the responsibility." Malice will not dare to say 
that the smallest taint of selfishness ever mingled with any of 
these transactions, and the blindest folly is not so stupid as to 
believe that his conduct in them could have been swayed by 
motives arising out of his personal interest. The strongest case 
ever cited against him will serve as an example. When he 
was defending New Orleans, he was surrounded with spies and 
traitors and to prevent them from communicating with the 
enemy or stirring up sedition in his camp, it was necessary to 
proclaim martial law— necessary according to the testimony of 
all witnesses — absolutely and imperatively necessary, accord- 
ing to the admission of Judge Hall himself. By that measure. 



23 

the country could be saved ; without it there was no hope. Un- 
der these circumstances, the temporary restraint upon Louallier 
and Hall were trifles light as air in his eyes ; for he weighed 
them in the scale with a nation's liberty for ages. But when he 
had won the great battle, when his brows were wreathed with 
victory, when his country w^as safe and he alone was in danger, 
he "bowed his laurelled head to the authority of the court with 
a submission as lowly as the humblest, nay, — he protected the 
judge from the indignation of the muhitude while he pronounced 
the most infamous sentence that ever stained a record. 

But I have done. It was, perhaps, unnecessary to say so 
much. The character of Jackson is becoming better and better 
understood, every day. Our children will marvel what man- 
ner of men their fathers were, among whom there could be a 
difference of opinion about the merits of such a man. The 
time is speeding rapidly on, when he will be appreciated by all, 
w^ithout distinction of party or sect ; and then it will not be 
necessary to couple his defence with his eulogy. His fame, 
like a mighty river, will grow wider and deeper as it rolls 
downw^ard. The wreaths on other brows may fall away, leaf 
after leaf withered and faded, but time will only add a greener 
freshness to the everlasting verdure of his laurels. In the con- 
stellation of talents and worth, which adorns the firmament of 
American glory, there is not one star before whose bright as- 
trology the future friend of human liberty w'iil kneel with a more 
fervent devotion. In all coming time, wherever a true Ameri- 
can shall be found, if there be one pulse within his free born 
bosom that beats more proudly than another, he will feel it 
throb, when he hears the name of Andrew Jacksox. 



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